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Once the editor changed from an individual to "The Phrack Staff" it kinda lost it's charm. I also take it as a sign of the times tho, folks who needed to earn

Once the editor changed from an individual to "The Phrack Staff" it kinda lost it's charm. I also take it as a sign of the times tho, folks who needed to earn a living couldn't risk being strongly associated with the zine. Folks also began self publishing on their own sites/blog and bugtraq really became the place to publish your CVE... It was fun while it lasted. I'm sure the new & current gen have their own idea of the "in thing".

tptacek 6y ago
I can't think of any time since the mid-1990s where being affiliated with Phrack would have jeopardized a high-status career in software security.
- kbenson 6y ago
  I think perhaps not everyone that would want to participate had their career in software security though, and I can imagine some other software sectors where they might look unkindly on the relationship. E.g. Someone working deep in the bowels of some company in the financial sector but their hobbies are more diverse.
  - tptacek 6y ago
    That's funny, because a plurality of the O.G. Phrack crew wound up working in security in finance, particularly at the i-banks.
    - happyconcepts 6y ago
      maafakaz!
    - kbenson 6y ago
      You know, I might be conflating phrack with 2600 in my head. IIRC (which is by no means guaranteed) 2600 was (is?) a bit more edgy, but I was regularly reading both at around the same time in the early 2000's, so some of my ideas about them might be mixed after all this time.
  - NateLawson 6y ago
    Hacking became "cool" for the corporate world in the late 90's. Movies like The Matrix and the fact that nothing too valuable was online yet meant that getting hacked was likely just web site defacement. Meanwhile, there was finally real money to be made in developing security for when the web finally became worth protecting.
- NateLawson 6y ago
  There was some ongoing consternation at ISS around 96-97 about an employee being a Phrack editor. Management talked to them but it didn't threaten their career.
  - tptacek 6y ago
    You're not serious. Look at who ran ISS! I have faint memories of SNI people being upset that ISS salespeople tried to pigeonhole us as hackers (this all precedes the widespread adoption of the hat coloration system). I guess, on post-97, pre-99 ISS, I stand corrected. :)
    - bink 6y ago
      Wasn't it Klaus who made some ridiculous statement like "no hackers work at ISS" at one point in time?
      - tptacek 6y ago
        I don't want to dunk on Klaus, who seems like a perfectly nice person these days, and this is all way, way in the past, but like: hah, no.
        cklaus 6y ago
        Thanks Thomas. With a team like ISS X-Force, it would be silly to claim there wasn't any hackers involved. Infact, I'm pretty sure there was quite a few Phrack articles written by ISS employees in their earlier life, under their irc names,,, myself included. ;) I think most of the content that would have gone into Phrack in early days became posted as commercial vulnerability research later on.
        tptacek 6y ago
        oh my god Perfectly nice person period! There's an old rivalry with ISS, and a thread about X.25 networks and 40hex puts me back in my Calgary head space.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

tptacek 6y ago

I can't think of any time since the mid-1990s where being affiliated with Phrack would have jeopardized a high-status career in software security.

kbenson 6y ago
I think perhaps not everyone that would want to participate had their career in software security though, and I can imagine some other software sectors where they might look unkindly on the relationship. E.g. Someone working deep in the bowels of some company in the financial sector but their hobbies are more diverse.
- tptacek 6y ago
  That's funny, because a plurality of the O.G. Phrack crew wound up working in security in finance, particularly at the i-banks.
  - happyconcepts 6y ago
    maafakaz!
  - kbenson 6y ago
    You know, I might be conflating phrack with 2600 in my head. IIRC (which is by no means guaranteed) 2600 was (is?) a bit more edgy, but I was regularly reading both at around the same time in the early 2000's, so some of my ideas about them might be mixed after all this time.
- NateLawson 6y ago
  Hacking became "cool" for the corporate world in the late 90's. Movies like The Matrix and the fact that nothing too valuable was online yet meant that getting hacked was likely just web site defacement. Meanwhile, there was finally real money to be made in developing security for when the web finally became worth protecting.
NateLawson 6y ago
There was some ongoing consternation at ISS around 96-97 about an employee being a Phrack editor. Management talked to them but it didn't threaten their career.
- tptacek 6y ago
  You're not serious. Look at who ran ISS! I have faint memories of SNI people being upset that ISS salespeople tried to pigeonhole us as hackers (this all precedes the widespread adoption of the hat coloration system). I guess, on post-97, pre-99 ISS, I stand corrected. :)
  - bink 6y ago
    Wasn't it Klaus who made some ridiculous statement like "no hackers work at ISS" at one point in time?
    - tptacek 6y ago
      I don't want to dunk on Klaus, who seems like a perfectly nice person these days, and this is all way, way in the past, but like: hah, no.
      - cklaus 6y ago
        Thanks Thomas. With a team like ISS X-Force, it would be silly to claim there wasn't any hackers involved. Infact, I'm pretty sure there was quite a few Phrack articles written by ISS employees in their earlier life, under their irc names,,, myself included. ;) I think most of the content that would have gone into Phrack in early days became posted as commercial vulnerability research later on.
        tptacek 6y ago
        oh my god Perfectly nice person period! There's an old rivalry with ISS, and a thread about X.25 networks and 40hex puts me back in my Calgary head space.
deleted 6y ago
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